Art teachers get chance to show off

It's been more than a decade since Janis Rink exhibited her artwork in a gallery. Denise Chonski hasn't done it since college. It's Margaret Watrous' first time.

The three art teachers are among those whose work will be displayed at the Visions Gallery in the Diocesan Pastoral Center in Albany, Sept. 19 to Nov. 21 as part of "Showcase: Art Teachers of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany."

The show is the brainchild of curator Elaine Violyn Luzine, an art teacher at Holy Cross School in Albany. While displaying her watercolor landscapes at local colleges, libraries and galleries, she noted how difficult it was for teachers to balance their school schedules with the rigor of exhibiting in a gallery.

Array of art

The teachers will exhibit works in clay, mixed-media, acrylic, oil, fabric and charcoal. For example, Mrs. Luzine will hang a number of vividly-colored and detailed watercolor landscapes, as well as two small paintings inspired by the Book of Kells.

When not teaching at St. Helen's School in Niskayuna and St. Anthony's School in Schenectady, Ms. Rink indulges in her love of quilting. Small pieces of multi-colored and multi-patterned fabric are sewn carefully together to compose her entry to the Visions show: a garden of individual stalks, flower petals and a worn stone walkway.

The students she teaches "surprise me daily," she said. "Their artwork has a whole different quality to it, a beauty and innocence that as an adult you can't reproduce. You think you've set out your goals and objectives, and they sometimes go beyond that and give you new ideas, things you didn't even think of."

Watercolors

Ms. Chonski, an art teacher at St. Teresa of Avila School in Albany, remembers the chiding words of her art teacher, spoken after she'd completed yet another watercolor: "Denise, you have to try other things."

Despite that cajoling, she's still painting watercolors, enamored by the depth, transparency, contrast -- and difficulty -- found in the medium.

The majority of a teacher's time, said Ms. Chonski, is spent teaching children and preparing lesson plans; as a result, it's easy to forget about doing one's own artwork or completing the paperwork necessary to land a show at a gallery.

"I don't have a name in the local art circles because I'm not out there promoting myself," she noted. "Teachers focus on teaching, and you're making artwork there in the classroom -- drawing things to look at, showing the children some of your own. You're not as focused on exhibiting as someone who was making a living on it."

Graffito

For her entries, Mrs. Watrous, who teaches at St. Mary's Institute in Amsterdam, took a page from a lesson she gives her students.

"You can buy graffito commercially made, but I've made my own," she said, describing the process of layering wax pigment, ink and acrylic paints, then scratching though those layers to create multi-colored pictures.

This is her first time exhibiting work in nearly 11 years.

"I've always considered myself an artist, but I really took a long time finding out what I was interested in," she said. "I also would say, since I was busy raising a family, I got a late start on my career."

As much as she loves working as an artist, "I really love teaching," she said. "I couldn't tell you which I prefer because somehow they go together. I use teaching like the old-fashioned artist uses a palette and paintbrush. My palette is broader than paint; my palette extends to my students."

(Other art teachers participating in the show include Dwight David, Catholic Central High School, Troy; Patricia Cahill, Holy Spirit, East Greenbush, and St. Mary's, Waterford; Diona Chapko, Christ the King, Westmere, and St. Jude, Wynantskill; Marie Lambrecht, St. Clement's, Saratoga Springs, and St. Mary's, Ballston Spa; and Kristin Schweigard, St. Madeleine Sophie, Guilderland, and St. Brigid, Watervliet.)

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